The present invention comprises a machine for the treatment of residues by means of compaction or solidification by means of a color coded binder in accordance with the type of residue. In other words, a new process and suitable machine are combined to carry out the process, which may be for domestic or industrial use.
Due to the fact that the XXI century will be the century concerned with the environment, and that it is not possible to maintain the rate of destruction of the ecosystem in order to produce raw materials, nor is it possible to incinerate all residues due to the contamination this would produce, it is necessary TO REDUCE RESIDUES, TO REUSE RESIDUES AND TO RECYCLE RESIDUES.
The process that is going to be described and the appropriate machine for this purpose, are based on a totally innovative concept and it proves to be very advantageous in many senses, given that it allows RESIDUES TO BE REDUCED, REUSED AND RECYCLED. The process is easy to use and also causes a reduction of containers on thoroughfares and in the service cost for the government.
As background and without trying to make an exhaustive list of all possible residues and concentrating on urban residues as an example for the description of the application of this new process and machine, we can state the following background:
Nowadays urban residues tend to be placed by users or people who produce residues, in containers or vessels generally owned by the city government. These residues, after they are picked up by the corresponding garbage collectors, may have two destinations:
Destruction or incineration (traditional garbage dumps)
Transfer to so-called xe2x80x9ctransferxe2x80x9d plants. These plants may have two basic activities:
Compacting residues and packing them for their subsequent transfer to a residue incinerator.
Collecting mixed residues and trying to select the residues usable for subsequent reuse or recycling and the non-usable ones compacting them for their subsequent destruction in an incinerating plant, or in a controlled dump.
Presently there is also a tendency to request the collaboration of citizens to make a previous selection of residues, in such a way that they may be treated more easily in the plants of destination, or even so that they may be recycled, such as in the case of specific containers for paper, glass, batteries, cans, etc.
This collaboration becomes difficult because it has to combine ease for the user, so that it is effective, the availability on thoroughfares and the cost that the Government may assume. Among machines for the treatment of residues, ES-2101661 has special interest since it discloses a machine for compacting and packing residues. Said machine comprises an equipment for compacting residues provided with a pressing head and a collector recipient, as well as an equipment for packing the compacted residues and for closing hermetically said packing, means for collecting liquid residues and means for cleaning and disinfecting the equipment for compacting.
In broad outline, the process for the treatment of residues, that comprises the object of the invention, as well as the machine whereby said process is carried out, are based on a new concept which comes from the idea that the entire process of selection and compaction of residues is done by user himself, at the place where the residues are produced and using for this purpose the machine which will be like another electrical appliance in homes, restaurants, cafeterias, etc.
In this way countless advantages are obtained, since the residues leave the place of production already prepared, without producing bad smells for users or on thoroughfares, preventing pollution by residue putrefaction, being easily storable by users as well as of the new containers on thoroughfares, reducing up to one-fourth the volume of residues and allowing selective garbage collection, which would involve a drastic reduction of all costs of the municipal services or of the government, and in general of the entire residue collection process and subsequent treatment thereof.
As it has already been indicated above, residue selection is done by the person himself who produces the same, that is to say, it is done in the home of the user himself, in bars, restaurants, industry, etc. For this purpose, a multiple container, with various individual vessels or ones separated by partitions, is used, in such a way that the residues may be deposited selectively; for example, paper, glass, cans, organic residues, plastic, TETRABRIK(trademark), etc.
Subsequently, as the vessels of the container become filled, with the already classified residues, they are emptied into the tank of the machine that will be described hereinafter and that comprises the object of the present invention, for treatment thereof according to the type of deposited residue.
The machine is comprised of a loading tank wherein the pre-selected residues are deposited. For this purpose it has a cover in the top part, through which the residues are inserted and it is closed during the process.
One of the side walls of this tank is formed by an attack plate or surface of a horizontal cylinder that advances pressing the contents of the tank and thus producing the first pressing of the residues horizontally.
Afterwards, another smaller plate cylinder that operates vertically, produces a second pressing so that the residues remain converted into a compact and dehydrated briquette, in the event that the residues had any liquid or were wet.
For this purpose, the base of the tank is provided with holes that communicate with a collector and its corresponding drain in order to evacuate the liquids that may be produced during the successive pressings. Said collector has some showers connected to a water tank and another disinfectant tank for cleaning and periodic disinfecting of the surface thereof, as well as of the tank.
A hand selector has also been provided for in order to choose the operating pressure of the cylinders in terms of the type of residues to be treated.
The briquette thus formed is diverted by means of the action of the vertical cylinder itself, towards a bottom chamber, which takes place once the bottom of the tank that is materialized by a movable plate, has been moved by means of the action of another cylinder, in order to allow the briquette to come out. This chamber is provided with heating means, generally resistors that are automatically connected when the briquette enters the chamber.
A binder, which may be of any type of resin or any other suitable binder, is injected onto the briquette in this heating chamber, through some injection channels and simultaneously a dye is injected, in such a way that the binder and the dye combine. The dye is of a different color depending on the type of residue, in accordance with a previously established color code.
Once the binder and the dye have covered the entire surface of the briquette, the heating means are disconnected in order to allow polymerization and solidification thereof.
The binder as well as the different dyes are contained in some suitable tanks, placed in the body of the machine, taking advantage of unused hollow spaces.
Then, the cylinder withdraws, making the movable plate retract in order to place it in its initial position, that is to say, placing again under the loading tank, the collector and the heating chamber, over the opening for ejection of the briquettes. Each one of the briquettes is pushed by one or several chambers, that operate vertically, producing their fall by gravity to a storage chamber provided for in the base of the machine, from where they will be removed at the opportune moment so as to be subsequently transferred to some collective selective residue containers, which upon the residue briquette being color coded, will allow storage thereof inside the public container in a classified manner, making it possible to maintain this pre-classification in the rest of the chain with the advantages that this involves.
The color coded collective residue containers, as well as the conveyance that intervenes up to the transfer plants, may include classified storage, equipping the corresponding spaces inside the container or inside the conveyor tank.
All of the movements are preferably of electric or hydraulic drive, although they may indistinctly be of pneumatic or mechanical drive.
Likewise, all the movements are perfectly synchronized in accordance with a programmed sequence, for which there are controls, meters, sensors, etc. and their corresponding control panel.
There are also doors for access to the inside for the cleaning and maintenance of the different mechanisms.
The fact that the thrust plates of the different cylinders, with which the pressing chamber is closed, may take on different surface shapes in order to also act as a mold for the briquettes, so that different shapes spherical, cylindrical, prismatic, etc., although the rectangular parallelepiped shape has been advantageously preferred because it is the simplest and most easily stackable for storage of briquette, may be conveniently obtained, should also be pointed out.
As one can see, the process set forth has countless advantages within the chain of production, collection and treatment of residues, contributing to improve the present day processes and systems that intervene in the elimination and recycling of residues.
This arrangement achieves a series of advantages, among which we can cite the following:
It reduces residues up to 25% of the present volume, in places of residue production, and therefore on thoroughfares or places used for this purpose.
The machine is totally hygienic, given that the binder forms an insulating and waterproof layer, avoiding wetness, smells and pollution, as the residues do not contact with oxygen that starts the putrefaction process. Likewise, the liquids in their initial, non-polluting state, are neutralized in their expulsion path through the drain, avoiding their chemical alteration and subsequent pollution.
The selective color coded collection allows briquettes of different types of residues to be grouped together, permitting in a simple and low cost manner, the reuse and recycling of residues.
It is very ecological, given that it will reduce emissions to the atmosphere coming from incinerating plants and smells coming from composting plants. It will reduce the problems of sealing dumps and the problems derived from gases in the same.
It allows effective and efficient residue management.
It permits the normalization of the residue management policy given that the different present-day social, economic, political factors, etc. are causing a lack of a uniform environmental policy.
Reduction of the high present costs in the residue collection and treatment chain.
It allows for users ""awareness and permits their cooperation in collective responsibility of the environment.
To provide a better understanding of the features of the invention and forming an integral part of this specification, some sheets of drawings in whose figures with an illustrative and non-restrictive manner, the following has been represented, are attached hereto: